New York Assembly Committee Holds Hearings On Publicly Funded Ski Trip That Included Pete Sessions; Texas Media Picks Up On The Story

Back in March, I told you about Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Dallas) coming under fire in New York State for taking a ski trip funded with $25,000 from a New York power authority and hosted by the U.S. Olympic Committee and the Olympic Regional Development Commission.

Now, the Texas media is picking up on the scandal after three committees of the New York State Assembly (the Committee on Corporations, Authorities and Commissions, the Committee on Energy, and the Committee on Tourism, Arts and Sports Development) held a joint session and heard more than two hours of testimony relating to the trip.
Dallas’s CBS affiliate, CBS-11, has picked up on the story:

So who paid for their trip? Sessions’ office says New York states Olympic Regional Development Authority picked up the airfare. The authority says that’s not true, and that the trip was paid for by the United States Olympic Committee.

Keep in mind the USOC is a private company that means picking up the tab would violate house rules on gifts and travel. USOC officials say the New York Authority footed the bill.

The USOC received funding for the trip from the New York power authority mentioned in the March news story.

There’s more:

“Mr. Sessions and every other member of congress were invited to the event. They chose whether to come or not. He came… we’re glad he came,” said U.S. Rep. John Sweeney, event organizer.

Sweeney, a republican congressman from New York, says the purpose of the trip was to inspect, “certain structural improvements and evaluate the need for additional federal assistance at Lake Placid.”

But the schedule of events suggests the event was light on inspections and heavy on sporting events and cocktail parties for members of congress and lobbyists.

Well, well, well. Evidently Sessions can’t get his story straight.
The NY Assembly’s Committee on Corporations, Authorities and Commissions‘ notice of the session is here. The Press Republican, a paper in northeastern New York State, has some better coverage than CBS-11 of the hearing itself here; Barton, however, is not mentioned.

Just remember one thing, though: before the Texas media ever picked up on this (including the brief blurbs that appeared some days after I covered it), you read it on a blog first.

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